Great Movie But Dated

Rating: Null/10 (9 August 1999)

Everyone else seems to think that this is the best war movie ever made (or close to it), including several friends whose opinion I value. However, although I agree that it is one of the best war films of its time, I feel that it has not aged well and is now dated & not as interesting as more recent efforts.
My biggest problem is the depiction of the Germans vs. the Allied characters. The Allies tend to be shown in a silly or comical way--snapping their little plastic noise makers, cracking jokes, & engaging in other low comedy (i.e. Sean Connery). Meanwhile, the Germans are all depicted as deadly serious, realistic characters. One gets the feeling that the tension in the film comes from whether these bumbling comedians can overcome the serious, goal-driven Germans. While the film is faithful to Ryan's book, the choices of what to show and how to show it are not well made. This may not have been that big a problem in 1962, but in 1999 it is a significant one.
A further problem is with the idea of the "all-star" cast. The stars tend to overcome the characters they're supposed to be playing. Again, other than the German characters who are given more depth, there is a tendency to toss big names at the audience and the significance of the character they're playing is minimized.
I'm not saying this is a bad movie (no movie with Robert Ryan in it can be said to be truly bad). What I am saying is that it has lost some of its sheen over the years. I have to admit to preferring "A Bridge Too Far" when it comes to "all-star war movies". For all the flaws in that film, it puts its actors firmly into character and doesn't fall for simplistic sentimentality. And the low humor is kept to a minimum.